Chapter 5

My first day as Damien Fangor was ... Interesting, to say the least.

When I started living with Elfangor, it was still Sunday.

It was ridiculous, the amount of money that Elfangor stole.

I expected to be living in a run-down shack that barely looked liveable.

But instead, I saw a nice-looking five-story house, with bedrooms, a bathroom, and we even had a couple of beds.

There was a phone on the wall downstairs, (Remember, this is the 90s, so they didn't have iPhones or anything like that), and we even had a TV, if you can believe it.

Oh, and Elfangor's car was parked in the driveway.

I spent the rest of the day watching TV, and occasionally chatting with Elfangor.

I noticed that Elfangor had warmed up to the four of us, and he actually seemed interested in learning about humans.

When it was time to make dinner, Elfangor brought out a cook book that he had borrowed from Tracy's house.

He made spaghetti, and it wasn't bad, considering that Elfangor had never eaten or cooked human food.

I did have to help him with some of the measurements.

When Elfangor tried the spaghetti, he was overwhelmed by the sense of taste.

"We Andalites do not eat this way," Elfangor said, "We eat by running across grass and absorbing the grass with our hooves. We do not taste our food as you humans do. Maybe one day, Andalite scientists will come to Earth to study humans and replicate this wonderful sensation."

After the incident at supper, I decided to go to bed.

Our plan was to pretend to be normal, so as to avoid any suspicion from Controllers.

I morphed my Damien Fangor morph.

Elfangor had said the time limit didn't matter when you morphed a frolis of a member of your own species.

I decided to get used to being Damien Fangor instead of David Parker.

The morph that was Damien was slightly taller, quite a bit more buff, and had a different voice. He also looked nothing like me.

If my father were to see me in my morph, he wouldn't recognize me.

I had trouble falling asleep. I mean, if you were on the run from an alien force that knew your face, name, address, and was out for your blood, wouldn't you kind of have a bit of trouble falling asleep?

And if you add on that your parents are both controled by these aliens? Even if your mother might be on your side, it would still be hard to take in.

But once I finally fell asleep, I had a dream that made me wish I had been awake the whole time.


I was nothing more than a rat. A RAT! That was what those damned Animorphs had reduced me to.

I was left eating garbage and the dead bodies of other animals.

I was in hell. Hell on Earth.

I had nobody to talk to.

And it was all because of those Animorphs.

I hated every single one of them.

Jake. Jake was the cruel, heartless leader who treated me like I was the enemy. He kept a close watch on me as if I would turn around and rip him apart with my lion morph.

Then again, I did try and do that once.

Tobias and Aximili weren't even human. Tobias was a bird, and he was treated better than me.

Aximili was an alien, and in my opinion, Andalites are sub-human and they don't deserve to be treated equally to our species.

Cassie was nice, but that was her flaw.

She treated me like one of her animals. She was just as bad as the others, but in her own, kind way.

Marco was cold, ruthless, and untrusting. He refused to rescue my parents and he would rather leave me for the Yeerks than have me join him.

And then there was Rachel.

She was a psycho, an evil, barely human thing that should not be allowed to live.

Of course she was human, on the outside. Biologically she was a human like any other, except that she had the morphing power.

But she was not human on the inside.

No human could kill innocent Hork-Bajir like Rachel. She made sure their deaths were painful.

No human could come up with such a plan. Getting me to spend the rest of my days as a rat?

That was a torture no human could ever inflict upon another.

And I also hated that Andalite who created the Animorphs out of those five human children.

What was his name? Ah yes, Elfangor.

I wish I could have been the one to kill him.

But I hated Rachel the most. I hated her more than any other being in the world.

I hated her. She was the mastermind behind my torture.

"If we're being factually correct, then Cassie was the one to create the plan."

I turned around, and immediately noticed that I was human again.

"What's going on?" I asked.

I suddenly remembered my other memories. The Morphalites. Elfangor, Nate, James, and Tracy. I remembered Iniss 225, the Yeerk controlling my father. I remembered Lanilin, our possible ally in the Yeerks, who was either controlling or helping my mom.

I looked at the alien thing that was standing in front of me.

"What is this?" I asked.

"This? Oh, this is nothing." He said. "This is a dream, a glimpse of your native timeline. In that timeline, the Yeerk fighting humans were five children, Jake Berenson, Rachel Berenson, Tobias Fangor, Cassie Miller, Marco Rodriguez, and the Andalite, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill."

"Tobias Fangor? But Fangor is the name Elfangor and I are using."

"Yes. Tobias was the son of Elfangor and a human girl named Loren."

"Wait. Elfangor has a son?"

The Drode laughed. "Not in this timeline. A change in the timeline caused Elfangor's parents to be killed when Elfangor was two. He developed an even stronger hatred of Yeerks in this timeline than in the last one. Another change is that Loren, Elfangor's human wife, is not human, but was instead born a Yeerk named Lanilin."

"So Lanilin was a human in this first timeline? And she was Elfangor's wife?"

"Yes." The Drode said. "But Tobias is not in this timeline. He does not exist."

Suddenly, a human woman appeared.

"Ah, Drode. Fancy meeting you here. Tell my old friend Halshir Savlak that I say hi. And tell him I will kill both him and the Ellimist."

"Call him Crayak. That's what he goes by now. The Iskalite Halshir Savlak is gone. He was the earliest version of my great master."

"How great is he, really?"

"Greater than you could imagine, Mel."

"You idiot! What have I told you about calling me that? It's Melissa! Mel is the name of that Morphalite. You know, the Kalenthian-turned-human."

"Excuse me." I said. "But we don't have a Morphalite named Mel. And I have no idea what a Kalenthian is."

"That will come in the future." said a third voice.

A blue, glowing old man appeared. "But for now, David, it is time to wake up."

And as he said that, I heard the thought-speaking alarm clock that Elfangor had rigged up. I snapped awake immediately.

Nothing like hearing an alarm clock going off inside your own head to get you started for the day.


School was interesting.

I thought I'd seen Mr. Chapman, the assistant principal at the Sharing meeting. I was pretty sure he was a Controller.

I had first period math.

I groaned mentally. I hated math.

There was a kid in the class named Erek King. I noticed that there was something different about him. I couldn't figure out what.

He was doodling, and I caught a glimpse of one of his drawings. It looked suspiciously like a Hork-Bajir.


The other classes sort of blurred together, but last class was history with Mr. Tidwell.

Believe me, that man was strict. Even more than Severus Snape in the Harry Potter books.

He asked me to stay after class.

He closed the door.

"I know who you are. David Parker."

My heart skipped a beat, and I frantically looked for an exit.

"What?" I asked.

"You can relax. I am a member of the Yeerk Peace Movement. Lanilin and your mother are with me. My Yeerk's name is Ilim 493 of the Hett Simplat pool."

"So you're the real Mr. Tidwell?"

"Yes. My Yeerk sometimes lets me have control. We're more like partners."

"What did you need to talk to me about?"

"I needed to tell you that we would like to meet you in three days, after the Yeerk's next feeding cycle."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we would like to talk to you about our next course of action against the Yeerk Empire."

"I'll tell the others."

"Okay." He said. "Tracy is already one of us. Her Yeerk's name is Innah 626 of the Yash Hawl pool."

I didn't expect this.

"So how much of our interactions have been with a Yeerk and how many of them have been with Tracy?"

"All of it has been Tracy. Innah has a rare Yeerk disability that makes her unable to control hosts. She can still talk to them and all that stuff, but Tracy has to pretend to be a loyal Empire Yeerk Innah. Innah doesn't mind, since she still experiences Tracy's human senses. So go acquire all the necessary morphs, and come see me after school in three days."


I called a meeting.

We no longer used Tracy's house as our home base, but we were instead living in the house I shared with Elfangor.

How should I start this?

I turned to Tracy. And I said four words that would get her attention faster than anything else.

"I know about Innah."


A/N: Next, Tracy's reaction, as well as the decision about who should lead the Morphalites.

Sorry this chapter took a long time. Parts of it were kind of hard to write, and I also had things going on in real life.

Until next time.